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erhaps you just purchased or have received a lovely cut flower dahlia bouquet; and, you are possibly wondering how to care for your bouquet. How can you make the colorful petals remain bright and vibrant and last as long as possible?

Here are some instructions that may help make your bouquet last much longer than you possibly expected:

The first step is to place your bouquet in water as soon as possible in order to prevent wilting. Air moves rapidly into the water-conducting tissues of the flower stems and plugs the cells. This is why one should hold the stems underwater and cut approximately one quarter inch from the bottom of the stems at a 45 degree angle with a sharp knife. Cutting at an angle enables the stem to stand on a point, allowing water to be in contact with the cut surface. Cutting under water ensures that air does not enter the stems. Never use scissors to cut the stems as they will crush the vascular system in the stems and thus block the water uptake. Be sure to strip any foliage that will be under water in the vessel you will be using. Bacteria will form if foliage is in the vase water, and thus cause premature demise of your beautiful bouquet. Discard any decaying leaves or flowers because gases and bacteria form on wilted or decaying flowers.

Be sure to clean the inside of the vase you will be using by cleaning the inside with a bleach solution. This process destroys any bacteria that may be present.

Use the floral preservative packet included with your bouquet mixing it in tepid water. Water temperature of 100-110 degrees (F), 38-40 (C) will move into the flower stems more effectively than cold water (kinetic energy). Allow the vase of flowers to cool for an hour or two. This process is called "hardening" which ensures maximum water uptake. Floral bouquets which are allowed to cool in this manner lose less water. In this one brief period while the water is cooling, the fresh stems, leaves, and flowers take up almost as much water as in the balance of their life. The main objective in this process is to get water and nutrients as quickly as possible to the blooms.

If your tap water is high in salts or fluorides, consider purchasing and keeping distilled water on hand for your bouquets. Chlorine, however, in tap water is not a problem since it also acts as a natural disinfectant.

Please note that using a homemade concoction might not be as effective as professional floral preservative because they don't contain the complex mixture of preservatives and nutrients your bouquet requires to last for several days. Adding aspirin, wine, bleach, or pennies to cut flower bouquets will not help to keep the bouquet fresh longer.

Professional floral preservative contains three main ingredients which are: 1) Sugar which is food for the flowers. This sugar (sucrose) is necessary to continue the development of the flower bud since it is no longer producing sugar through photosynthesis after being cut. The leaves on the flower plant to which your flowers were attached were initially the major source of food for the flower blooms. When growing in the field or garden, the leaves made carbohydrates (sugars) available to the flowers. The sugar in the floral preservative helps maintain the vibrant color in the bouquet. 2) Hydrating solution (acidifier) helps the flower stems remain turgid. Flowers wilt because the stem cells are unable to take up the required amount of water. The outside ring of the flower stem consists of tiny tubes that are responsible for transporting the water in the vase to the blooms and leaves in the bouquet. The hydrating (acidifier) solution in floral preservative lowers the pH in the water and thus encourages good hydration. The acidifier makes the pH of the water closer to the acid pH of the cell sap in the flower stem. A pH of 3.5 is ideal. Most water supplies are alkaline and can reduce the life of cut flowers. The acidifier also stablizes the pigment and color of the flower. This also explains why red dahlias turn bluish when placed in water without an acidifier. 3) Bacterial control is important to prevent the flower stems from getting plugged. It doesn't take long for bacteria to form in vase water. Professional preservative contains an antibacterial agent to prevent this from happening. Never over crowd the flowers in the vase. A crowded vase is a prime habitat for bacteria.

Here is a helpful tip regarding the professional floral preservative packets included with your bouquet purchase. Most of these packets are five grams which make only one pint of solution. The average vase holds at least one quart of water. If the five gram packet is mixed in one quart of water, the solution is too weak to work effectively. What happens in this case is that the sugar in the preservative enables the growth of bacteria and the weak solution also will not contain enough antibacterial agents to stop the growth of bacteria, and thus shortening the vase life of your bouquet. Consider purchasing a box of floral preservative from your flower vendor in order to have the proper amount of preservative in your vase water at all times. Many flower vendors will be happy to sell you a box of 100 packets at cost. It is of utmost importance to the market flower vendor who has customers purchasing bouquets every week during the market season.

If you notice the vase water becoming cloudy, it is time to replace the water in your vase. Be sure to rinse the stems, cut the bottoms approximately one-quarter inch, and return the bouquet to a clean vase. Flowers that are going limp are not drinking well and need to be recut. Always discard wilted blooms.

Be sure to keep your flower bouquet away from hot or cold air drafts, sunlight, and hot spots such as the top of the television set. They should not be kept near ripening fruit since the fruit emits ethylene gas which shortens the vase life of the bouquet.